Race Around the World (FIA-WEC)

The next leg of the World Endurance Championship (FIA-WEC) is in Austin, Texas USA, where the “Circuit of the Americas” will take place and racing stars like Marc Webber, Nick Heidfeld, Alexander Wurz and Patrick Demspey will continue competing for the championship title. These special race cars represent cutting edge technology. The race track is the proving ground for top performance by pilots, pit crews, and race engineering.

The beginning of September the first trucks started to arrive at VG Cargo. The special trucks, specific rigging, handling/loading techniques and equipment are integral parts of the entire process. Around 50 people, representing race teams, logistic professionals, station managers and flight personnel converged on site in the cargo terminal to carry out the operation from land side-to-airside. According to the COO at VG Cargo, Mr. V. Gornak “The most challenging part was organizing and dispatching the people, equipment and planning the operational procedures. High value and automotive cargo certainly always needs special handling. Our new automated stacker system allowed us to combine the precision of handling with the speed of processing freight. It is logical to me – high tech freight requires high tech equipment in combination with professional people.”

The DHL Global Forwarding Motorsport Team leading the operation worked in close coordination with race team logistics, transportation companies and airlines to move the high performance vehicles to their next destination, safe and sound. “The most interesting aspect for me regarding the WEC operation is that all modes of transportation are used. Be it truck, sea freight, air freight or charter – we offer a complete all-round carefree package.” Mrs. Christina Splettstoesser (DHL Motorsport Manager). The expertise and experience of the motorsport department, the “value added services” division of DHL Global Forwarding is a key success factor. More than 400 tons were loaded onto B747-4Fs distributed over four flights which were then flown to the US. The race around the world continues onward (after Austin Texas) to Japan in October, China and Bahrain in November.

VG Cargo GmbH provided the optimal environment (e.g. capacity, equipment and security), processing and handling expertise for the safe and efficient care of the high value freight (31 race cars, parts and equipment). The cargo terminal (over 25,000 sqm.) was transformed into race car heaven. The international teams worked in sync, carefully orchestrating the entire process and using the universal language of air cargo and logistics to communicate clearly and to beat the clock. “I would say that having so many top professionals from the worlds of racing and logistics working hand in hand, communicating in order to perform with wonderful results – that was fantastic.” COO at VG, Mr. V. Gornak.